I Found My Daughter’s Note in Her Wet Backpack After I Picked Her Up From Her Dad’s — and Realized That Night Wasn’t the First

Everything they do.

It records everything.”

I went very still, because I understood, in that instant, that my daughter had just handed me the one thing that could turn a case built on inference and contradiction into a case built on proof.

And I understood, too, why she had been so frightened to tell me — because telling me meant admitting that there was footage of the worst moments of her life, and no child wants that seen.

I took her hand.

“Thank you for telling me,” I said.